Fitness Friday - Fitness News You Can Use

It's Friday, so it must be time for some fitness information. This week we have Chad Waterbury with a protocol to add strength in your training program; Christian Thibaudeau with a new training program; Charles Staley with a good post on sets, reps, and goals; Tony Gentilcore with a post of using kettlebells to improve your deadlift; and finally, Bret Contreras with 10 things people new to training should know.

Add Strength to Your Program

Chad Waterbury | August 6, 2014

Most of us want to get bigger and stronger at the same time. But most guys or gals that follow a bodybuilding-style program aren’t building much strength.

So today I’m going to outline a workout you can put in your current bodybuilding program that will fill in the much-needed gaps.

That’s important because if you increase your full-body strength you’ll be able to lift heavier loads in your bodybuilding workouts. This, in turn, will make it easier to build muscle in your other workouts.

Maximal Strength

There are many types of strength, so when I talk about strength-training I always make it clear to my audience what type of strength I’m talking about. In most cases, I’m referring to maximal strength: your ability to lift the heaviest load possible for 1-3 reps.

The master of maximal strength, Pavel Tsatsouline, and I have had many discussions on the best way to build it. Russian weightlifters – known as Olympic lifters to us in the states – spend most of their training cycle in the 80-85% of one-rep max (1RM) training zone. That fact will be surprising to many since it’s typically best to train with heavier loads than 85% of 1RM if you’re far from your maximal strength potential.

* * * * *

The 915 Workout Program

by Christian Thibaudeau | 08/06/14

Here's what you need to know...

• This program is designed to make you at least 15% stronger while adding 7 pounds of muscle on your body – distributed in such a way that it will not only make you look a lot larger, but more powerful.
• The 915 program uses the three powerlifts (squat, bench press, deadlift) and the snatch-grip high pull or power clean as the foundation lifts.
• You'll use two assistance exercises for each main lift. These assistance exercises will allow you to correct any weaknesses holding you back on your main lift.

If you want to build muscle at a fast rate, you don't have to include an exercise for every single angle of every single muscle in your body. You don't have to use all the most advanced methods at the same time. Growing is all about working hard on exercises that will deliver results 10 out of 10 times. It's also about finding your personal weakness and hammering it hard.

The system I present below is very simple, but if you apply some elbow grease the results are guaranteed. So stop over thinking! Get on the system, work hard, and you will grow and get stronger. It's as simple as that. And for those who need further assurance, I've been using this system with several clients and they're all progressing faster than I expected; gains of at least 15% on the big lifts in 9 weeks is normal!

* * * * *

How Many Reps Should I Do?

by Charles Staley | 08/04/14

Here's what you need to know...

• It's not what you can do in a set, it's what you can do in a workout. It's not what you can do in a workout, it's what you can do in a training cycle.
• If you're interested in maximal strength, tension is the name of the game. That can mean lifting a very heavy weight as fast as you can, lifting a moderately heavy weight as fast as you can, or ideally, both.
• If your main goal is strength, you should terminate any given set just short of technical breakdown, or for stable lifters, always leave one solid rep in the tank for any given set.
• If your main goal is hypertrophy, you should use a wide range of reps, from as few as 1 to as many of 30. This can be done by pyramiding up to a few heavy sets, followed by a few higher-rep "back off" sets with lighter weights.
• Most trainees need to address both strength and hypertrophy in their training, regardless of what they consider their primary goal to be. The "sweet spot" between these two adaptations seems to be 5-8 reps per set.
• Training to failure is only advisable for technically stable athletes on their last set. Blowing your wad on your first set will limit the overall amount of volume you'd otherwise be able to rack up.

Whenever you're doing a set, there are only two real decisions you need to make:

1. How many reps should I do?
2. How close to failure should I go?

Aside from exercise selection and training frequency, these are possibly the two most important decisions you'll need to make in order to obtain optimal results from your training. To answer these questions, you'll in turn need to ask two additional questions:

1. What's my goal?
2. How many total sets am I going to do for that exercise?

* * * * *

How the Kettlebell Can Improve Your Deadlift

Tony Gentilcore | August 2, 2014


I had an interesting conversation with my good friend and fellow strength coach, Ben Bruno, not too long ago.

He and I like to catch up every now and then to 1) discuss our mutual affinity for JP Licks ice-cream and 2) talk some training and fitness shop.

He’s originally from New England and worked as a coach at Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning for a handful of years before moving out to LA last fall for a change of pace and to pursue some other opportunities.

His typical clientele now out in LA resembles a litany of Hollywood A-listers and a “who’s who” of gossip magazine covers, as well as those people who have a bit more of an aesthetic bias towards training.

While he loves LA and the people he works with, a small percentage of his heart is still back in Boston, working with athletes and helping people get strong.

In one of our last conversations he made the comment that there’s a stark contrast in training mentality between the west and east coast. But a little context comes into play.

Whereas at Cressey Sports Performance, someone nails a 400+ lbs deadlift and no one bats an eye, out in LA someone hits that same lift in a commercial gym and it’s assumed they’re on steroids. And then given their own reality tv show!

Similarly, with regards to female training, and especially with regards to female celebrities and the “Hollywood” mentality as a whole (my apologies with the gross generalization here), barbell training is almost considered taboo.


Ben noted that whenever he’s tried to get some (not all) of his female clients to train with free-weights they were a tad skittish and reticent to place any appreciable load on the barbell.

Truth be told, while the tide is slowly turning for the better (more and more women are reaping the benefits of strength training. See: CrossFit), there’s still a “barbells are scary” vibe that pervades the female psyche. It’s slight, but it’s still there.

Ben noticed a funny thing, however. He noted that whenever he had his female clients use kettlebells they were more than eager to “get after it.” It was almost as if they didn’t think kettlebells counted as strength training.

* * * * *

10 Things All Beginning Lifters Should Know

Brett Contreras | August 5, 2014

Every experienced lifter out there can remember the first time they moseyed into the weightroom, full of fear, confusion, and insecurity. Though most of us make it past these initial stages, some lifters never do. Some lifters quit training, mostly because they don’t understand it. If only there was a seasoned lifter at every gym who could talk to beginners and educate them on what things are important and what things aren’t very important. Below are the more common sources of confusion and misunderstanding that newcomers to resistance training share.

Fitness Friday - Fitness News and Information You Can Use

It's Fitness Friday again, and this week we have an interview of Dr. Stu Phillips conducted by Brett Contreras; three articles from T-Nation on deadlifting (made simple), ab exercises (kept simple), and being an "ancestral athlete"; and finally two nutrition studies, one on L-ornithine's effect on stress markers and sleep quality (seems good) and on water cress as the ultimate superfood (really? I have my doubts).

An Interview With Dr. Stu Phillips on Muscle Hypertrophy and Sports Nutrition

Brett Contreras

Yesterday (May 26) I had the privilege of sitting down with Dr. Stuart Phillips from McMaster University (click HERE to follow him on Twitter) and discuss various topics in sports science and nutrition. We talked about the hormone hypothesis, best rep ranges for hypertrophy (and load versus effort), THIS article (Mitchell et al. 2012), sarcoplasmic versus myofibrillar hypertrophy, limitations and practical relevance of his research, levels of protein intake for maximal hypertrophy, recommended supplements for maximum hypertrophy, and more.

* * * * *

Next up are a couple of articles from T-Nation.

The Simple Deadlift Program 

by Matt Kroc   
06/03/14


Here's what you need to know...

• Hitting a new PR in the deadlift is surprisingly simple. Deadlift hard and heavy and then let your body rest and grow. There's no need for fancy techniques.
• While this program should result in at least a 20-50 pound increase in 1RM, one lifter experienced a 90-pound increase.
• You'll only deadlift once per week, preferably 3-4 days after squatting. You'll also take every fourth week off from deadlifting.

Training the deadlift is simple. Hit it hard, hit it heavy, then let your body recover and grow. There's really no need for fancy techniques like drop sets, super sets, or rest-pause sets. Regardless, you gotta' be smart. Effective programming for the deadlift involves a well-planned progression in the amount of weight used. It also addresses and prevents overtraining, stimulates hypertrophy, and reinforces proper technique.

Using the program below, it's not uncommon to see a 20-50 pound increase in 1RM over a sixteen-week training period, and I've even witnessed as much as a 90-pound increase. You'll only deadlift once per week, preferably 3-4 days after squatting. You'll also notice that you take every fourth week off from deadlifting. This is to allow sufficient recovery and prevent overtraining. Deadlifting is very taxing and the lower back muscles are often stressed heavily when squatting and during other heavy back movements so you need the break. No worries, though, you can still train the lower back muscles during the fourth week, but with different exercises like good mornings, weighted back raises, reverse hypers, and pull-throughs, keeping the reps in the 10-20 range.

* * * * *

Ab Training Made Simple 

by John Meadows   
05/26/14
 

Here's what you need to know...

• Ab workouts should be simple, quick, and effective. In fact, you only need two exercises and perhaps a third to work the "vacuum."
• The biggest error people make in training abs is their breathing. You need to inhale deeply before executing the movement and then as you crunch or leg raise, blow all of your air out. This forces your abs to contract.

A lot of people ask me why I don't write more ab routines. The truth is, I assumed people would find my suggestions too simple. But an ab workout should be simple, and quick, and effective. In fact, you only need two exercises and maybe on occasion a third to get what you want out of your abs.

Only Two Exercises The first exercise is primarily a "lower ab" movement where you bring your pelvic girdle toward your torso. For me, that means leg raises.
... The second exercise is primarily an upper ab movement in which you take your torso to your pelvic girdle.

* * * * *

The 10 Rules of the Ancestral Athlete 

by Ben Greenfield   
6/5/2014 


Here's what you need to know... 

• Your ancestors have important things to teach you about work, rest, stress, movement, and diet. 
• You don't need to quit your office job, but you do need to hack your job to simulate the hunter-gatherer lifestyle as much as possible. Stand up and get moving, desk jockey. 
• It's okay to sometimes be hungry, sometimes fast, and sometimes eat completely random meals you'd normally never eat. 
• You need to accept the fact that you live in a post-industrial era and that you're often exposing your body to relatively unnatural activities, foods, and environments, and you may actually need a bit of better living through science.

Last year I completed Ironman Canada. It took me nine hours and 36 minutes. That's relatively fast for an Ironman. Not "get a paycheck" fast, but fast. However, in preparing for the race, I only trained 8-10 hours a week. That's about one third of the training volume of my peers.

I don't have amazing genetics and I don't use illegal performance enhancing drugs; nor was I wearing roller skates for the run. I simply live my life by a defined set of rules that give me an optimum amount of strength, stamina, and health that allow me to do things like an Ironman triathlon at the drop of a hat. I call these "The 10 Ancestral Athlete Rules."

Why "ancestral"? Look at it this way: Your ancestors wouldn't have planted their ass in a chair for 8 hours a day and then, at the end of that day, driven a car to the gym, wandered in, huffed perfume and deodorant under fluorescent lighting, and destroyed themselves for an hour with a chunk of perfectly symmetrical steel or iron. Instead, they would've engaged in light, low-level physical activity throughout the day, such as hunting, gathering, foraging, etc. They would have slept more, stressed less, and then occasionally run from a lion or lifted heavy stuff, often outside and in unpredictable situations.

So here are my rules for living like an Ancestral Athlete....

 * * * * *

Finally, two nutrition studies:

Randomised controlled trial of the effects of L-ornithine on stress markers and sleep quality in healthy workers

Mika Miyake, Takayoshi Kirisako, Takeshi Kokubo, Yutaka Miura, Koji Morishita, Hisayoshi Okamura and Akira Tsuda  [Author Affiliations ]

Nutrition Journal (2014, Jun 3), 13:53 doi:10.1186/1475-2891-13-53 

Abstract (provisional)

Background

L-ornithine is a non-essential, non-protein amino acid. Although L-ornithine is contained in various foods, the amount is usually small.

Recently, studies have shown that orally administered L-ornithine reduced the stress response in animals.

From these findings, we speculated that L-ornithine may play a role in the relieve of stress and improve sleep and fatigue symptoms in humans. Through a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study, we asked if L-ornithine could be beneficial to stress and sleep in healthy workers.

Method

Fifty-two apparently healthy Japanese adults who had previously felt slight stress as well as fatigue were recruited to be study participants and were randomly divided into either the L-ornithine (400 mg/day) or placebo group. They orally consumed the respective test substance every day for 8 weeks. Serum was collected for the assessment of cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone-sulphate (DHEA-S). Perceived mood and quality of sleep were measured by the Profile of Mood States (POMS), Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS), and Ogri-Shirakawa-Azumi sleep inventory MA version (OSA-MA).
 
Results

Serum cortisol levels and the cortisol/DHEA-S ratio were significantly decreased in the L-ornithine group in comparison with the placebo group. Also, anger was reduced and perceived sleep quality was improved in the L-ornithine group.
 
Conclusion

L-ornithine supplementation has the potential to relieve stress and improve sleep quality related to fatigue, both objectively and subjectively.

The complete article is available as a provisional PDF. The fully formatted PDF and HTML versions are in production. 

* * * * *

This last one is a little misleading because the authors discount the health-protective qualities of the phytochemicals in berries and other colorful foods.

Watercress tops list of ‘powerhouse fruits and vegetables.’ Who knew?

By Lenny Bernstein
June 5, 2014



(Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Anyone who’s paying attention knows it’s a very good idea to eat green, leafy vegetables and colorful citrus fruits. Over time, research has shown their association with reducing cancer and chronic disease. In fact, most of us know that we should be consuming multiple helpings of these foods each day. (Here is a handy calculator from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that helps you figure out how much you need.)

But which vegetables are best? Fads come and go as quickly as that kale in your fridge. One day it’s broccoli, the next cabbage. And how do you compare the benefits of vegetables versus fruits?

Researchers at William Paterson University in New Jersey have done all of us a big favor by producing a list of 41 “powerhouse fruits and vegetables” ranked by the amounts of 17 critical nutrients they contain. Published Thursday in the CDC journal “Preventing Chronic Disease,” the foods are scored by their content of fiber, potassium, protein, calcium, folate, vitamin B12, vitamin A, vitamin D and other nutrients, all considered important to public health.

Atop the list? Watercress, long known as a superfood because it packs large amounts of a wide variety of these important substances, with a score of 100. The next five in the elite category: Chinese cabbage (91.99), chard (89.27), beet greens (87.08), spinach (86.43) and chicory (73.36). The full chart is below.

Fitness Friday - Fitness News and Information You Can Use

It's Friday, so it's time for another Fitness Friday post. There is a lot of good stuff this week, so pour some coffee, shut your office door, and get ready to be educated from some of the best minds in strength and fitness.

To begin, here are three articles from T-Nation - ridding ourselves of stubborn body fat, the problems with exercise science programs in most universities, and deadlifting 101, from a guy with an 800+ lb deadlift.

How to Burn Stubborn Body Fat

by Dr. Jade Teta
5.6.2014



Here's what you need to know...

• Spot reduction can occur, but on a very small scale. Attacking stubborn fat and spot reduction are two different things.
• Stubborn fat is physiologically different than other fat. It has a high density of alpha-receptors compared to betas, is more insulin sensitive, and receives less blood flow than less stubborn fat.
• Dieting by eating less and exercising more is by far one of the major blocks to permanent change. Supplements such as green tea extract, forskolin, and yohimbine HCL can help with stubborn body fat, once you get your diet in order.

The other day I was perusing some popular health and fitness pages on Facebook . One discussion was from a person asking a question about "targeting stubborn fat". The page administrator answered the question this way: "You can't target certain areas of the body. It's simply impossible. The body burns fat from all over. Spot reduction has been proven a myth."

And the truth is? The page administrator is wrong on both accounts. First, you can certainly target stubborn fat, and spot reduction has been proven to occur.

* * * * *

The Problem with "Exercise Science"

by Mark Rippetoe
5.5.2014



Here's what you need to know...

• Most university-level programs do not equip their graduates to function beyond the commercial gym pin-setter level.
• Barbell training, the most basic and effective method for improving strength and conditioning, is either not taught in most programs or so poorly taught that it leaves students unable to get real results with their clients and athletes.
• Many studies that make it into the hallowed "Literature" draw conclusions based on unrealistic, silly methodology and puny weights. It's clear the "exercise scientists" conducting these studies do not use barbells beyond a novice level, if at all.
• To get a real education, study a "hard" science, plan for much self-education, compete in your field of interest, and coach lots of other people... for years on end.

I talk to lots of kids who are interested in becoming strength coaches. I get e-mail about this every week, and we talk about it with people who attend our seminars every month. Most are in school for an "Exercise Science" degree, at either the graduate or Masters level. I have two important observations:

1. The university-level programs are so uniformly bad that everyone who comes prepared to pass our barbell training and coaching course has done the preparation themselves, with no help whatsoever from their coursework at school. As far as I know, there are so few college-level programs that actually equip their graduates to function beyond the commercial gym pin-setter level that I cannot tell you the name of a single school that does the job adequately.

2. These people come to our Level II seminar, and the most frequent comment from them is something to the effect that "I learned more in your 25-hour course than I learned in the past 4 years of my Exercise Science program at [name any university]. Thank you THIS much [stretches arms wide and hugs me]." I understand that people don't go to college to learn how to lift weights. I know that Brooks and Fahey must be read and understood, that some approach to understanding cardiopulmonary topics must be taught, and that testing and measurements are sometimes important if quantification is necessary for the Physical Therapists.

But I also know that any college-level program that calls itself "Exercise Science" or "Biomechanics" or "Exercise Physiology" or any other trendy permutation of PE should at least prepare the student to function in a situation where the coursework can be applied in a real-world scenario, beyond what would be expected of a self-taught trainer in a gym, and that this is the expectation of the student who enrolls there. Most of these people graduate from the typical PE program quite literally unequipped to show a client the most basic weight room exercises and, more importantly, completely unable to put this client on an effectively-designed program that improves physical capacity over the longer term. The ones who can have learned how on their own.

* * * * *

Heavy Deadlifting 101

Tips from an 810 Pound Deadlifter by Matt Kroc
05/02/14

Here's what you need to know...

• With deadlifting, you don't need fancy techniques like drop sets, super sets, rest/pause, etc. Keep training simple with rep ranges of 1-10 reps.
• Smaller, thinner lifters tend to typically perform better with the Sumo style while larger, thicker lifters tend to be stronger in the conventional style.
• Conventional deadlifting is preferential for bodybuilders, has a greater carryover to everyday movements outside the gym, and is more applicable to increasing performance in other sports.
• It's important at the beginning of the lift to move the bar away from the floor as fast and as explosively as possible as the momentum gained from this will aid greatly in completing the lift.
• If the bar moves in towards you as it leaves the floor, then you're setting up too far away from the bar. Conversely, if the bar moves out away from you, you're setting up too close to the bar.

Deadlifting is the base upon which all real back strength is built. There's not a more raw or true to life exercise. You bend over and pick up something heavy. That's it. However, the deadlift's simplicity is also the reason it's so effective. It stresses every major muscle group in your posterior chain, but none more so than your back. It works your back from the base of your erectors to the top of your traps and everything in between.

You can always spot a guy with a big deadlift. He has powerful, yoked traps and a back thickness that you can't obtain any other way. Ronnie Coleman and Johnnie Jackson possess two of the thickest and most powerful looking backs to ever step foot on a bodybuilding stage and it's no coincidence that they're both capable of deadlifting in excess of 800 pounds.

* * * * *

From Eric Cressey's blog, a brief video on understanding and managing joint hypermobility.

Functional Stability Training of the Upper Body: Why Do You Feel “Tight?”

Written on May 6, 2014, by Eric Cressey

Next week, Mike Reinold and I will release our newest resource, Functional Stability Training of the Upper Body. We're super excited to introduce the third installment of our popular series, and thought you might like a little teaser of what to expect. Here is an excerpt from one of my webinars, "Understanding and Managing Joint Hypermobility:"



Keep an eye out early next week for the release of this resource!

* * * * *

From Tony Gentilcore's blog, an article on the joys of the goblet squat, and an intensity adaptation he calls "goblet elevator squats" - looks brutal, which means I will need to try this soon.

Exercises You Should Be Doing: Goblet Elevator Squats 

As far as “fool proof” exercises are concerned, you’d be hard pressed to do much better than Goblet squats.

I’d toss in an obligatory “it’s so easy a cave man can do it” joke here, but, well, shit, I just did.

Time and time again I’ve seen someone with some of the worst squatting technique you can imagine (Think: knee valgus, rounded back, my corneas perpetually bleeding), only to see them squatting flawlessly in a matter of minutes when coaching them up on the Goblet squat.

Likewise, almost always, whenever someone complains about how much “squatting hurts my knees,” I can get them performing them pain-free with a little cueing and attention to detail.

I like to call it “pulling a Dumbledore,” because it’s borderline magical in their eyes.
It makes complete sense when you think about though.

- Give them an anterior load to force them engage their core musculature more efficiently and to provide more stability.

- Cue them to SIT BACK (keeping their feet flat, however placing the brunt of their weight into their heels), while simultaneously pushing their knees out (t0 open up the hips).

- And then teach them to “finish” with their glutes at the top, and not only do they see drastic improvements in their technique (and depth), but it feels effortless and less painful.

That said, even though the natural progression is to (eventually) move towards barbell variations, sometimes it’s advantageous to stick with Goblet squats in the interim and make them more “challenging.”

* * * * *

And finally, from Breaking Muscle, a look at the back squat vs. the overhead squat.

Science Compares the Back Squat to the Overhead Squat

Doug Dupont: Contributor - Health and Fitness News

The overhead squat doesn’t get enough attention in some circles and may be overemphasized in others. Some people consider it inferior to bigger lifts like the back squat, whereas others emphasize its advantages as a superior core exercise. A recent study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research addressed this controversy.

In the study, researchers took a group of rugby players who were experienced lifters and had them perform back squats and overhead squats at 60%, 75%, and 90% of their three-rep max. Their squats were studied by electromyography (EMG) in order to analyze the amount of activity in their muscles. The researchers focused on trunk and lower body muscles, but also looked at the anterior delts.

Technically speaking, the overhead squat outperformed the back squat for the anterior trunk muscles, as measured by the EMG activity of the rectus abdominis and the external oblique. However, the authors of the study were quick to note that the differences were a small, albeit significant, 2%-7% difference. Due to the small percentage, they concluded that the claims of superiority of the overhead squat for trunk musculature are therefore false.

However, let me play devil’s advocate for a minute here. First, up to a seven-percent improvement is not to be discounted. That’s a big difference when it adds up over time. Second, experience level with the overhead squat is a big factor. Few people are as practiced with it as they are with a back squat, which can affect results like this. Third, overhead squat loads were smaller. This study focused mostly on relative weight, meaning the percentage of one rep max, so the back squat loads were higher. When they compared pound for pound, the overhead squat had higher EMG activity in every muscle except the gluteus maximus, and only during the concentric phase.

Back squats, on the other hand, can be lifted with greater loads. While the overhead squat may be better for the anterior trunk, the study found the back squat was better for every other lower body and trunk muscle when compared at relative loads rather than absolute. The only other muscles they tested were the anterior delts which, not surprisingly, were hit much harder on the overhead squat.

The researchers also compared both squats to traditional core moves like sit ups and planks. The rectus abdominis and the external obliques both showed much greater activity from the core moves. By contrast, both kinds of squats hit the erector spinae much harder.